Attributes
Attributes Attributes are the most important characteristics of any character. They define not the abilities characters possess but their primary capabilities: The average human attribute score is five, minimum is 2 (0 means that a character is either dead or completely incapacitated, 1 can only be granted by GM's permission), maximum is 20. Constitution This is a measurement of a character's toughness defining how much damage he or she can take without dying or falling unconscious. It affects the character's Hit Points value (every point in Constitution gives 5 points in HP), Stamina (every point in Constitution gives 5 points of Immediate Stamina), his or her weight carrying capabilities (every point in Constitution gives 5 kilograms to Normal Lift) and resistance to diseases and poisons (every point in Constitution gives ? points to these resistances). This attribute is crucial for characters who face their enemies in open melee combat. Characters with high CON can try to work as "tanks", engaging enemies that are attacking their allies in combat, not only because they can take more significantly more damage, but also because they can fight effectively for longer periods of time, and their enhanced lifting capabilities grant them abilities to wear heavy armor without additional penalties for its weight. Note that low Strength can also give penalties to characters wearing heavy armor, but CON allows them to just bear its weight. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Strength This attribute is self-explanatory - it shows how strong the character is. More specifically, it affects the values of a character's basic damage (adding 1 point of damage for every 2 points of STR), his or her abilities to use weapons and armor (look at the specific items to see what STR is required to use them without penalties) and the maximum shooting distance (described in Ranged Attacks section). It also allows the character to block incoming attacks, for instance, with a shield, more effectively (described in Active Defense section). STR is extremely important for melee fighters because it defines their damage and what weapons and armor they can use, but it is also important for characters using long-range bows and throwing weapons. It is possible to be a good melee fighter without a high value of STR, but it requires either magical enhancements or a high value in Agility. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Charisma This is a measurement of most of a character's social skills, some artistic and even espionage skills. The higher this value is, the better the character is at any kind of non-violent interaction with other intelligent creatures. You shouldn't confuse this attribute with Appearance though, Appearance is how a character looks rather than how he or she acts. Understandably, this attribute is important to anybody who wants their character to be less front-line fighter and more of a leader or diplomat, although it has other uses. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Agility This attribute shows how fast and dexterous the character is. It affects character's chance to successfully attack or defend (detailed at Melee Basic Attack section), number of the Physical Action Points (5 ± modAGI) and move speed (15 ± modAGI for normal sized characters and half of this value for smaller ones like halflings or gnomes). AGI is an obvious choice for rogue-like characters, but because it affects melee attacks and defences it is also very important for almost any other, even a mage or technician. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Intelligence INT shows how smart the character is and how good he can be as a mage or a technician. More specifically, it affects the character's number of Mana Points (+10 MP for every point in INT), number of Mental Action Points (+? for every point in INT) as well as technical and magical abilities (described in corresponding sections). Intelligence is a main attribute of mages and technicians but without it any character would wander in a dangerous yet almost completely unknown world due to his lack of Knowledge. It needs to be pointed out that the same value of INT attribute shows different mental level for intelligent creatures (humans, elves and other races) and for non-intelligent ones (animals, both magical and mundane). It does not mean that these two tables are somehow related. When you remove one point of INT from an intelligent character that already has 0 points in this attribute, he will not have the characteristics of a 19 INT creature from the table for non-intelligent creatures. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Perception This attribute shows how perceptive the character is. It affects a character's ranged weapons accuracy (look for details in the Ranged Attacks article), success rate of magic spells (???), constructing mechanisms (???) and detecting hidden things (???). Naturally, it is very important for range attackers, mages and technicians but it also shows how good a character is at detecting traps and ambushes. It is imortant to remember, that Perception rolls depend on the character's five senses, but the attribute itself does not. For example, if a character is blinded he or she does not lose score in this attribute but merely gets a penalty (if he or she is fully blinded this penalty will be infinite) to a roll involving sight. He or she can still roll for PER trying to hear or smell things unpenalized. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Willpower The last attribute is Willpower. It shows how strong a character's will is and how brave he is, which is a little obscure at first, but, put simply, affects a character's defenses against magical attacks (???), and defenses against social skills such as Persuasion, Intimidation, Fear etc. Any character that might get in combat with mages would need this attribute, as well as any character that might get into any social contact. |- ! style="background: Tan; height: 8pt" | |} Buying attributes All attributes can be increased by buying additional points in attributes scores for Character Points. The amount of CP you need to buy a point in a certain attribute depends on what this attribute is and what level of the attribute are you trying to achieve. Raising an attribute from 5 to 6 would cost less CP than raising an attribute from 6 to 7. To raise an attribute from 5 to 7 you would need to spend CP equivalent to both costs. You can also lower your attribute scores at character creation to increase the amount of your CP, which is shown by negative numbers. These costs are detailed in this table: ''Example: You want to have this array of attribute scores:'' ''CON: 7, STR: 8, CHA: 4, AGI: 6, INT: 3, PER: 5, WIL: 5'' For this, you would need to spend: 11+12=23 CP on 'CON, 11+12+13=36 on '''STR, 11 on AGI; 23+36+11 = 70 CP in total. You don't need to spend any points on PER and WIL, and you would gain 5 points from lowering CHA and 5+6=11 points from lowering INT, giving you 5+11=16 points back in total. In the end, you would need to spend 70-16=54 points to get this attribute array.'' Note that you can't gain more points but lowering your attributes than half the amount of your initial Character Points. You will, more than likely, have a few points left after buying all the attributes. This is to be expected, because you might use these points for improving other aspects of your character, such as Appearance, Skills, buying advantageous Characteristics, etc. Attributes and Skills Another important aspect of your attributes is that you get points to put in your Skills equal to your attribute score multiplied by 2. That means that a score of 5 in your Strength would give you 10 points in your Strength-based skills.